Dead Man Walking

Imagine yourself convicted for a crime and sentenced to death. Imagine the hate in the society towards you. What kind of a soul would you have? How would you feel about the thought knowing when you are going to die and in what way? How will you react? Who will help you out? In the novel Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean, was asked to correspond with Pat Sonnier, a man sentenced to die by …

…Helen, or the rest of us, was not extended to them before they reached death row. If it had, they might never have gone there. Secondly, the alternative genealogy traced here is one that smacks strongly of privilege. If identity is the result of individual care, if soul is the product of compassion, where lie the souls of those who do not share their particular histories with others, those who are not loved at all?